Carlos Zéfiro

Alcides Caminha

(? - 198?, Brazil)

Carlos Zéfiro was a Brazilian comic artist who drew pornographic comics. His small publications, drawn very crudely, circulated in virtual clandestinity in the underground scene during the 1950s and 1960s. Interest in his work declined in the 1970s, when magazines with photos of explicit sex were sold freely on newsstands.

It wasn't until after his death in the 1980s that Carlos Zefiros' identity was revealed. It turned out that he was a public employee, not an artist at all. He published his erotic comics as 'O Quadrinho Erotico', and they have been reprinted as 'Getting Real in Black and White'. He feared legal action against his work, resulting in the loss of his government job. Today his work is prized as nostalgia, and original editions of his booklets fetch high prices at auctions.